Champagne → Max Verstappen

ii| Certainly Different

"Well, if Max and Daniel got one, I think it is only fair that I got one too."
*~🏎️~*

"Cause baby now we've got bad blood
You know we used to be mad in love."

"Preseason testing."

Lily had breathed as her brother and her had walked through the security measures. It had been the first time she had been on a track for Formula 1 in the Red Bull gear and she had already felt the impact it had. As Lance and her had strolled by fans in the paddock, pausing for an autograph or phot o every so often, she had heard whispers and one person had even pointed at her.

"Ah, the best start to the year. You could be wearing the green outfit too, you know." Lance had winked at his sister before his face had fallen serious. "Have you read any books lately, Lils?"

The Canadian had had to hide her splutter of surprise. She had hoped her brother wouldn't remember about the books but unfortunately, that didn't seem to have been the case.

"Um, you know what, there's Kiera! I have to go Lance, so sorry big bro, but you know duty calls, we'll have to catch up later, alright, bye, love you and leave you."

Quickly, she had sped off towards her Irish manager, leaving her unimpressed brother in front of the Aston Martin team garage. Her dyslexic had given her an unfortunate fear of any books that weren't related to engineering or Formula 1, and even then it had been mostly too hard to read.

"How's my favorite manager?"

Lily had slid her arm around Kiera's neck as they had walked nearly straight back from where she had come from- straight to the Red Bull garage.

"Busy and I've been looking for you. Mr. Verstappen is waiting for you for over five minutes."

The think Irish accent had poured into her tone, which had always only happened on stressful occasions, also known as every race, testing and meeting. Laughing, the F1 driver had patted her manager on the back.

"Chill, Kiera, there's three days of testing, might as well have some worry left to store for the other days. Plus, I told you yesterday over the phone, I'm sure Max would want you to call him Max. Alright, better head inside, remember to relax." the brunette had waved to her busy manager, jumping up every two stairs, oblivious to the crew of cameras from Netflix that had been following her.

The Red Bull team garage had been very different to the Williams. First of all, there had been a lot more employees and instead of Max Verstappen standing in front of her, it had mostly been Nicholas Lafiti. Second of all, they had had a much nicer coffee machine at Red Bull than at Williams.

"Hey Lily." Max had held out his hand to the Canadian driver who had shaken it back. "Welcome to the Red Bull family."

"Thanks for having me."

She had smiled at her new teammate, her voice ever so slightly breaking. She had to admit she was a little starstruck by the new surrondings, as well as that she had been paired with a two time and probably more world champion.

"Well, we have to have the best of the best." the F1 driver had wickedly grinned. "Talking about me, obviously."

"Don't tell me I have a cockier teammate than I remember. Now, I only really know the engineers, can so you introduce me to them or are you Dutch too full of brain cheese you don't know who they are?"

The pair had laughed and Lily had felt at ease. She had been able to see herself becoming good friends with Max over her the next two years of her contract and his girlfriend Kelly when she finally got to meet her.

"Well, a coffee for the road?"

The Dutchman had offered, to which he had recieved a grateful look. Coffee had always been something she had loved, ever since a little kid. It had just kind of fused into her personality, a very confusing mix of an extroverted introvert. Eventually, someone had brought over two coffees and Lily had very politely thanked them.

"They just walked over here with some coffee, you didn't have to thank them so graciously." he had commented as his 'tour' had begun, but the Canadian had not taken it to offense or that he had been being obnoxious.

"It's my personality, I'm polite and slightly competitive outside of the track, on it, I'm absolutely ruthless. That's your first and only warning on the last note."

Chuckling, Max had proceeded to introduce her to the entire office team and etcetera. After every meet and greet she had made a mental note of the name, because if she had written them down, it'd be even more confusing.

At last, it had seemed as if they had met every single Red Bull employee, which had been an overstatement at the very least, and Max had led her out towards the exit, straight into the awaiting Christian Horner.

"Ah, just who I was looking for, the best pairing on the grid."

"Best to wait till we are out on the track and then we'll decide." Lily had smiled at the man, stepping forward and giving him a hug after Max. "How are Geri and the kids?"

"Thrilled, they love the start of the season, just as much as me. Geri also has some concerts and other things coming up, so the Horner household is heating up." Christian had replied. "You should've seen the sour face Toto had on, after an entire year of Lewis not winning a single race, and after us signing you, Lily, instead of Mercedes, it has made my day."

That news had come to a surprise to the brunette, as she had had absolutely no idea that Mercedes had even considered signing her. She had highly doubted it would be to replace George, not with his connection to Toto, which had made her realize that the Mercedes team might not have Lewis Hamilton for very long.

"I wish I could've seen it for myself. Now, I was wondering; when will there be a donkey called Lily?"

Both Max and Christian had spluttered out their sips of coffee at the random comment. To say the adamancy in her tone had surprised them, had been the very least.

"Well, if Max and Daniel got one, I think it is only fair I got one too."

"It's the first day of pre season testing and you're concerned about getting a donkey named after you?" her fellow Red Bull driver hadn't been sure if he was about to laugh or seriously question his team principal's choice to make a two year contract with the Stroll.

The only reason that Lily had known about the donkeys was because of the first season of Netflix's Drive to Survive, which she had binged over summer break due to the excessive boredom of not being able to race.

"Well, you win your first race this year, Lily, and we'll talk about it. Now it is time to get down to the serious business- qualifying starts in an hour and neither of you are in your driver suits or at the pitstop."